


Pilgrim from a Different Path

by Etnoe



Category: Gunnerkrigg Court
Genre: Crack Relationships, Frenemies, M/M, Xeno
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-09-27
Updated: 2018-09-27
Packaged: 2019-07-18 04:41:52
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 702
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16111019
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Etnoe/pseuds/Etnoe
Summary: Robot ventures into Gillitie Forest to ask Coyote a question, but they both get thoroughly distracted.





	Pilgrim from a Different Path

* * *

  
The metal man returned to Gillitie Forest in no particular triumph. And he certainly had opportunities to present himself better! There was a tale simply trembling for its telling in the way that he and a brave band of companions had once rid him of a shadow-man that had almost turned him into a tool of betrayal. There was the radiant plea of a supplicant who had learned of the superior ways of flesh and ether, and had turned to it against the will of all that was natural ... he could have torn his clothing away to evoke fascination, and told of how he was here to dedicate his marvellous deformity and reformation to the master of ether and flesh.

Instead he was simply fast enough to avoid antagonised Forest-dwellers, as he entered without fire-head girl. Then he proceeded to be direct in his speech, and what was the thing—polite. Yes, bland as could be.

"I have come on ... pilgrimage," the metal man said, a beat after the introductions had been completed, voice becoming yet more serious. "How do you tell the creation of a god?" 

"Between you and me," Coyote brayed, and then folded around him as a shadow-man had once done, to whisper into what passed for an ear: "It's usually when I've put so much of my power into someone or something that they can't help it!"

"Ah! But that must only be how you do it." Then he made another sound of realisation, _Oh_ , and stepped well away from Coyote in a blur of movement, and seemed comfortable again. "Can you tell me how other Forest-dwellers might sense such a thing?"

A point in his favour: he listened well to the explanations that Coyote cared to share with him. During that time, another few realisations could be observed in him: that his strange new flesh could feel discomfort from being still too long. It was a strange thing to witness, and appealing for it!

Then Coyote stopped caring to share. He had been very fair, and told secrets of great import as well as complete mundanities, and the metal man had treated them all the same. In the silence, the metal man stood, and then stretched to limber up. When he stilled, he held himself at the ready, and then let his lights blink, green-red, for a beat.

"How do you tell when a god is greater than you?" he asked.

 _Impolite_. And he was aware that it was so, yet asked it nonetheless!

Coyote gladly took the opportunity to flatten his ears and bare his teeth. He could not quite tell if the metal man was glad about the fight or not, but that added a little something interesting. And then Coyote absently happened to encounter his opponent's pain as he moved, and instantly he ended the fight with one great paw.

It was a most enormous paw, and so was the rest of his body to match, so that Coyote stood tall enough for his ears to prick above the canopy and bask in the sunset light. Still he was not big enough for _that_ pain to fit in him; it was almost beyond understanding.

The metal-meat morsel blinked lights at him, tiny stars in a tiny galaxy, red-green. There was very little about him that was clear to perceive, in truth.

Coyote licked him.

This sensation, this thing like pleasure if only the metal-meat man were surer of it, was also an immensity to witness.

Night unrolled and made its temporary home in the Forest, and they sat side-by-side in a grass hollow as shelter against its breezes. Coyote spoke in snickers and glances from the corners of his eyes, slinking so that he might press against this side of his companion and then the other, and the metal-meat morsel said only that he hoped to hear something closer to an answer to his last question, and silently had ongoing realisations about warmth and the nip of teeth and fur. He crossed his arms in a huff and did not move away, even at the hardest nip, even as he was at a loss to realise what he was feeling.

Coyote invited him back.


End file.
